Wireless connection not working on minimal image 2.3.1

Since minimal image 2.2.1, connecting to wifi has been extremely unreliable. On initially booting, the board often won't list all networks that could be connected to using image 2.2.0, and the networks that do show up cannot be connected to. Adding the desired network to the connection script does not help either, NetworkManager will attempt to connect and list the connection as active, but no data can be transferred. If NetworkManager is restarted, the wifi breaks completely and doesn't even show as an option in NetworkManager, let alone show networks to connect to. Ethernet does work on these images. Only once, on my first attempt at using 2.3.1, was I able to connect to wifi, but the image bricked due to other causes, and on further attempts to install 2.3.1 using the same SD card it did not work. Maybe images since 2.2.1 have been tuned for a mid-lifecycle SKU change?

Review the image 2.2.0, 2.2.1, and 2.3.1 behavior around NetworkManager and the connection script, starting with the boot-time network setup. Reproduce the missing networks, failed connections, and post-restart failure; done means Wi-Fi lists expected networks, connects, and transfers data reliably while Ethernet still works.

Written by the indexing model from the issue text.